Sniper rifles and other high-accuracy guns and artillery are designed to repeatedly deliver a projectile accurately and precisely. However, variations and other effects within the barrel, including perturbations caused by acoustic disturbances produced by the act of firing, can cause substantial changes to the trajectory or flight path of a projectile, thereby causing a decrease in accuracy. Currently, methods for reducing such perturbations typically relate to devices operable to mechanically stabilize a muzzle at the point where the bullet exits the barrel, such as those discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,374, or the use of movable counterweights such as those marketed under the mark Limbsaver®. Other methods for reducing such perturbations include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,798,473 and 6,889,462, which utilize a spring system for tensioning a barrel until its “sweet spot” is found to reduce variability in the accuracy of a weapon barrel. Additionally, many of the aforementioned methods exhibit dramatic degradations in performance as the temperature of the weapon barrel increases or with a change in ammunition.
It would be appreciated in the art to supply a system and method for reducing the variability induced in a barrel through a range of acoustic disturbances and temperatures without the need to iteratively tension and/or counterbalance then field test each spring loading configuration or counterweight position for each individual barrel and ammunition type. The elimination of movable components that might loosen or break also would be appreciated in the art. Therefore, there is a need for a system and method of improving the performance of a weapon barrel that overcomes the limitations of the prior art without adding substantial weight to the weapon, especially in military systems where any weight penalty is of critical importance.